That was quite a tweet – or whatever Elon Musks wants us to call them these days – that came out of Glenn Youngkin’s Virginia Department of Health last week.
“All women everywhere – no matter their work – should have at least 18 weeks, preferably more than 6 months, paid maternity leave,” the department opined, leading one to wonder if a Bernie Bro had surreptitiously hijacked the account and moved it far, far left.
Interesting that a division of the state government run by a governor who in theory at least was elected to get bureaucrats out of the lives of the public would put something like this up, particularly since the verbiage originated from the World Health Organization – whose reputation of late is rather checkered, at least among those paying attention.
The intent may have been laudable, and of course it’s always easy to suggest handy ways to give away other people’s money – never minding the real-world economic consequences of such actions, of course.
The U.S. is not Sweden. (Shoot, even Sweden is barely Sweden any more.) Expanding the social-welfare state, bit by bit, may work when times are good, but with $33 trillion (that’s with a “t”) in national debt that will be impossible to pay off; with many businesses focused ever more on getting rid of as many employees as they can (here comes artificial intelligence!); and with many to most Americans having dug themselves into financial holes of their own, the time might be right to get our current house in order before embarking on new social adventures.
And governor? You might want to make sure your health department runs tweets by somebody before hitting “send.”
